1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to intentional burning for land and forestry management and, in particular, to an apparatus, method and system for dispensing incendiary projectiles.
2. Description of Related Art
Prescribed burning is the intentional burning of typically forested areas to meet specific land management objectives, such as to reduce flammable fuels, restore ecosystem health, recycle nutrients, or prepare an area for new trees or vegetation.
Devices for igniting prescribed fires include conventional hand-held and aerial ignition devices. Conventional aerial ignition devices are typically mounted on a helicopter; receive plastic spheres containing an incendiary material, such as potassium permanganate; inject the received spheres with a reactant, such as ethylene glycol; and then expel the injected spheres to fall from the helicopter. A delayed exothermic reaction between the incendiary material and the reactant within the spheres can produce a prescribed fire where the spheres land. The delay of the exothermic reaction is typically 25 to 30 seconds.
Conventional hand-held ignition devices typically operate by dripping or throwing flaming fuel onto flammable materials such as ground vegetation. However, such conventional hand-held devices require an operator to be present on the ground at the prescribed fire, and are not suitable for aerial use due to their restricted size and output and safety concerns.
Some conventional aerial ignition devices dispense incendiary capsules obtained from capsule belts stored in magazines. However, such conventional aerial ignition devices require the use of capsule belts of specific and restricted dimensions, and are not suitable for dispensing spheres or other free flowing projectiles. Also, the belts and magazines become unusable waste after the capsules have been removed therefrom.
Some conventional aerial ignition devices permit adjustment of the desired rate of operation of the device. However, such conventional aerial ignition devices do not regulate the rate of operation. Thus, such conventional aerial ignition devices cannot correlate the rate of operation with a desired rate of operation.
Some conventional aerial ignition devices inject varying amounts of reactant into the spheres depending on the selected desired rate of operation of the device, thereby reducing the incendiary effectiveness of the injected spheres.
Some conventional aerial ignition devices include an electrically powered fire extinguisher for extinguishing fires located within the device. However, the fire extinguishers of such conventional devices do not operate when power to the device fails or becomes otherwise disconnected.
Aerial ignition devices typically require spheres to be expelled from the device after the user has stopped the flow of received spheres, thereby requiring the user to judge when to stop the flow of received spheres in order to consequently stop spheres from being expelled at a desired time. Thus, it would be desirable in the art to minimize the number of spheres expelled from the device after the flow of received spheres has been stopped. Conventional aerial ignition devices do not minimize the number of spheres expelled from the device after the flow of received spheres has been stopped.
Aerial ignition devices typically jam and/or break spheres in the device under conditions of misalignment. Thus, it would be desirable in the art to minimize the effect of jamming and breaking of spheres within the device. Conventional aerial ignition devices do not effectively address the problem of jamming and breaking of spheres within the device.
Some conventional aerial ignition devices cannot count the number of spheres being expelled.
However, such conventional aerial ignition devices may exhibit abnormal behavior when the solenoid or similar device de-energizes as a result of a failure or other disconnection of power to the device.
Some conventional aerial ignition devices do not have a removable base, thereby hindering installation of the device on the helicopter.
Prior art projectiles lack multi-coloured exteriors, thereby hindering their visibility, and are large and bulky.